GPPAC Board

GPPAC's Board consists of seven members who are appointed upon nomination by the GPPAC International Steering Group (ISG). Members of the GPPAC Board serve for a period of three years, which can be renewed once. For more information about our current Board members, please check the profiles below.

Miguel Álvarez Gándara

Miguel Álvarez Gándara is the International Co-Chair of the Board and the President of SERAPAZ. SERAPAZ is an independent and nonprofit organisation that works for peace and social change through the articulation and promotion of civil society-based initiatives, conducting research and producing publications, providing training and consulting, advocacy, and oversight of peacebuilding processes. Miguel is an expert on themes of social conflict and political analysis in Mexico, drawing upon forty years of experience in the field. He has served as a mediator and a consultant for diverse peacebuilding processes, including the mediation commission between the Mexican government and the coalition party of PDPR-EPR. Mr. Álvarez has also worked with diverse communities and movements such as the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca.

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls

Sharon Bhagwan Rolls is the Chair of the GPPAC Board and Executive Director of FemlinkPacific: Media Initiatives for Women, an organization that advocates for UNSCR 1325, community media and for women, peace and human security concerns. In addition to leading FemlinkPacific as GPPAC's Regional Secretariat for the Pacific region, Sharon was appointed as Gender Liaison for GPPAC's International Steering Group in 2009; since 2012 she is also a member of the GPPAC Board. Sharon has long been involved in advocacy on women's empowerment and is a member of UN Women's Global Civil Society Advisory Group (UNW GCSAG).

Mariska van Beijnum

Mariska van Beinum is GPPAC Board member. She is Senior Research Fellow and the Head of the Conflict Research Unit (CRU) at Clingendael, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations in The Hague. Her research focuses on aid architecture and aid effectiveness issues in fragile and conflict-affected situations, and specifically on coordination and coherence issues (whole-of-government / whole-of-system approaches) as well as financing modalities. Previously, Mariska held a research position at the Policy and Operations Evaluation Department of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, working on the Evaluation of local governance assistance through Municipal International Cooperation in the period 2001-2003, and on the Evaluation of Dutch Humanitarian Assistance in the period 2003-2006.

Ivana Gajović

Ivana Gajović is GPPAC Board member, Regional Representative for the Western Balkans and Co-Chair of the Peace Education Working Group. She is Director of Nansen Dialogue Centre Montenegro, local NGO, member of the Nansen Dialogue Network in the Western Balkans. Ivana is member of the grant commision at FAKT Foundation (Foundation for the active Citizenship), and founder and member of the Association of the Mediators of Montenegro. For many years, Ivana is involved in programmes of democratisation, Education for peace and conflict transformation.

Liesbeth Reekers

Liesbeth Reekers is the GPPAC Board Treasurer. She works as a researcher for the Dutch House of Representatives Internal Bureau for Research on Government Policy and Spending. She focuses on supporting the Parliament Committees on Education, Culture and Sciences; and Security and Justice. Earlier, Liesbeth worked in the Internal Finance Department of the Dutch House of Representatives, for Price Waterhouse Coopers and as a Business Management Consultant with an IT company.

Robert Zeldenrust

Robert Zeldenrust is the Dutch Co-Chair of the GPPAC Board. He spent most of his career in the foreign service of the Netherlands, holding i.a. various positions in the field of development cooperation, both bilateral and multilateral. He managed aid programs in East and West Africa at the ministry of Foreign Affairs and had postings in Sri Lanka and Brussels before being appointed ambassador to Lebanon in 2007. From 2000 to 2003 Rob served as the Director for Democratization and Human Rights in the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. Until his retirement in 2014 he was the Netherlands Permanent Delegate and ambassador to UNESCO in Paris. Subsequently, he joined PUM Netherlands senior experts, where he became coordinator for Government Services, as well as various ngos. Rob is chairman of the board of the Sen Foundation for Research and Education in International cooperation, chairman of the board of Unesco Centrum Nederland and vice-chair of the board of the Indonesia-Nederland Society.

What is GPPAC

The Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) is a member-led network of civil society organisations (CSOs) active in the field of conflict prevention and peacebuilding across the world.